The New York Times reports Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the South Carolina primary.
In second place right now is Tom Steyer, who spent $18.5 million on ads in the state. Then Bernie and Elizabeth. Then Amy and Pete.
More important than Biden, Sanders and Bloomberg, all of whom will be 78 by January, is who they would pick as their running mate. There is certainly no second term for any of them. [More...]
Biden wrote the worst criminal justice bills of the last 35 years. He gave us mandatory minimums on drugs, crack at 100:1, increase in death penalty offenses, unfair time limitation of habeas claims, and he throws too much money and credibility to law enforcement. Considering the racially disparate effect of the legislation he wrote or spearheaded, it's absurd to me that South Carolinians favor him. To me, the biggest reason for the racially disparate effect of our criminal laws is Joe Biden, who spent 30 plus years in the Senate writing them (along with right-wing Republicans -- so much for bi-partisanship).
People of color account for 37% of the US population, yet they represent 67% of the prison population. Black men are nearly six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men, and federal courts imposed prison sentences on black men that were 19% longer than those imposed on similarly situated white men between 2011 and 2016.
Moving on to Super Tuesday....I hope Bloomberg takes out Biden. And then loses overall to another Democrat.
I am still holding on to my ballot and debating who to vote for on Super Tuesday.
Ideally I would like a candidate who prioritizes a lockbox on our social security and will protect Medicare as it is and Medicaid; has a reasonable plan to provide health care to all people present in this country; priortizes family reunification and immigration reform (and not by sending the undocumented to back to their home countries to start the immigration process all over again);, supports all of ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights (not just Roe v. Wade or violence against women) and considers them as they were intended --to protect the rights of those accused of crime (not victims of crimes, we have laws and other amendments for them); and who will pick a running mate who is not a former top state or federal prosecutor. (Climate change is a given, all Dems support that).
There is no such candidate this year. Today, I think Bernie is the closest, and I do believe he can beat Donald Trump. I don't think the other Dems can and I don't think the country will fall as a whole for Bloomberg and his celebrity millionaire Hollywood supporters. If I'm wrong and Biden or Bloomberg is the nominee, I think we will get 4 more years of Donald Trump, who will destroy whatever is left of our battered national spirit and standing in the world, and hopefully we will come back stronger in 2024.
As for Joe Biden, he'll enjoy the sunshine tonight, but I predict he'll be back in the shadows on Tuesday.
